Why do I see .tab files in my dataset?

Why do I see .tab files in my dataset?

When you upload a tabular data file (e.g. Excel, SPSS) into the data station, Dataverse automatically transforms this file into an open format, a TAB file (see also How is statistical data (SPSS, STATA) archived at DANS?). You will therefore see TAB files in your file overview (e.g ‘Data.sav’ will be listed as ‘Data.tab’). Dataverse allows you to download the files either in the transformed .tab format or in the original format. 

If your dataset contains two statistical data files with the same name but different file extension (e.g. ‘Data.sav’ and ‘Data.dta’), the files will both show as .tab files in your file overview, but a number will be added to the filename by Dataverse to ensure that there are not two files listed with the same name and extension (e.g. you will see ‘Data.tab’ and ‘Data-1.tab’).